News Around the World

I've mentioned in an earlier post that my students love Current Events Friday!  All week the kids watch the news and keep up with local, national, and world events.  Two students sign up to present two articles every Friday.  We put the desks in a circle to create more of a discussion than a presentation.  I like the comfort level this naturally creates.  When each presenter is done with an article, he or she asks the class if they have any questions which they should be prepared to answer...as best they can!  I'd rather they admit that they can't answer a question and then have someone in the class grab a laptop to learn more.  Once all of the presentations are finished, we open the floor to anyone else who would like to share a news story, and then we watch the news and discuss stories that interest us.  The kids love it! 

One thing that I require of each presenter is that at least one of their stories is an international event.  This can sometimes be a challenge for middle level students, not only locating these stories but also making sense of their context.  I have shown them how to use Google News effectively, but yesterday I found something that will be an extremely useful tool for next year. 

With this website, Newspaper Map, one can find newspapers from around the world plotted on a map.  Now, it couldn't be easier to find international stories.  The best part is that they are color coded by language, and if a newspaper is not printed in English, Google Translator will translate it into English (or any language of your choice) with the click of a button!  I love a site that truly connects the world.

If I Were Born In...

I love when you stumble upon a hidden gem on the web.  The Lottery of Life wandered into my world a few weeks ago and I thought it was awesome way to encourage kids to see the world from another person's shoes.  Make sure you have your sound on!

The site takes a looong time to load.  You'll know it's ready when a little arrow pops up on the upper right side of the wheel that says Spin the Wheel.  Then it will load again.  ...I've been lucky and had quick loads here and there, but I have also had to wait quite a bit. 

Anyway, you'll spin and spin and then land in a setting.  A baby will cry (that's you) and it will tell you where you were born.  There will be a list of problems that exist in your country, as well as links where you can learn more about your country.  By clicking on the problems, you can learn more about them and also see what is being done to solve those problems. 

The students love this site because they talk about where they were born and then exchange stories about what life must be like there.  It is amazing to see their level of engagement and excitement.  They ask questions and eagerly further their research.

I used this site within our Human Rights unit.  On our class blog, I asked the students to write one well-written reply to the question, which human right is most valuable to you?  Then, after the spun the Lottery of Life wheel, they have to write a second reply to the same question but this time from the perspective of a child from the country that they landed on.  The last step was for students to respond to one another.  This piece was invaluable because it created a lot of, "really? that happens?" realizations and other rich dialogue.  Something else I observed was that students who don't typically do homework were asking if they could finish the assignment at home, since the website took so long to load.  I told them that they would have time in class the next day, but who am I to tell a student that he/she can't go home and learn???  By all means, I said.

If It Were My Home...

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this, but we recently rewrote the social studies curriculum.  I was teaching the Middle Ages around the world.  Even I had trouble seeing the relevence and worth of this content in the 21st century classroom.  My new course is Global Awareness.  We look at world issues, follow current events, and use technology to make global connections.  People worried that 7th grade might be too young for this type of curriculum, but I think it's a perfect age.  They are open-minded, interested, and inquisitive!  Plus, our department wanted to test a sort of backwards approach theory.  In 7th grade, students will learn where we are currently and generate an interest in social issues, culture, and geography.  Then, studnets might be interested in learning the history of how we got here and what came before us. 

This is my first year teaching this course and so far I think it's going very well!  Students are going home and talking about real issues.  They are asking questions that matter and debating topics that impact them directly. 

I am excited about all of the great resources out there that help to support my textbook-less classroom.  Thank goodness I hopped on the Twitter bandwagon when I did.  You can check out our Links page for all of our great finds.  Well, mine anyway.  Ian has yet to link up. 

Here is one that I found via Twitter yesterday.  I can talk to the kids all day about the state of affairs in different countries, but numbers don't mean much unless that have something to compare them to.  IfItWereMyHome.com is a great website that does just that. 

If you choose one of the countries from the tag cloud on the bottom of the page, it creates a map that overlays an image of that country on top of the U.S. to give an idea of the realtive size.  Then, there is a list of comparisons that relates infant mortality rates and income per capita, but it kid-friendly language.  For example, If you lived in Burma instead of the United States, you would make 93.76% less money.  By the way, I never realized how big Burma was! 

We'll be using this in class to make comparisons to different countries as they come up in discussion.  I have also been working closely with the math teacher on my team (new to Twitter, @JohnMVenner) who has been creating infographics with students to represent country data.  This will bea  great resource for us to share as we work to make our 7thgraders more aware and empathetic of the way people live around the world.

Middle East Protests Interactive Timeline

Look at this great interactive timeline of the protests in the Middle East shared by @lamoureuxr.

I was recently looking for something just like this! I love the way it is so easy to navigate and how the color coding offers a quick glimpse of the chain of events in each country. Also, I am a keep it simple kind of girl. When you hover your cursor over each event on the timeline, a short summary of events pops up in the upper left country. Even better, they give you a link to more complete article. I showed this to my students and they loved it! Definitely check it out.

Update: Today we started the research activity as part of our World Water Day unit. The kids were really interested in the articles provided by water.org.